Chamberlain Crest

I started this project by making a list of things I knew about the Chamberlain side of my family and could incorporate into the crest:

From England

My great grandpa fought in WWI, my grandpa fought in WWII, and my father retired as full colonel in the Air Force (this military heritage definitely needed to be included!)

Like the outdoors (mountains, camping, etc.)

Dad spent a few years living in Holland, and he passed down a lot of Dutch culture

Love gardening and are into healthy eating (my grandpa had and my dad currently has a very serious garden—both are extremely innovative in their gardening techniques).

Traveled all over the world (thanks to the military) and love sushi (we lived in Japan) and rollmops (pickled herring wrapped over a pickle...it's a Dutch thing).

Love animals

I wasn't sure how many of these I could incorporate, but I had to include the military aspect and the gardening somehow.

Then I found some inspiration and made a shield:

Next I worked on the laurels, which I wanted to be meaningful so I looked up England's national flower (the tudor rose):

Then I decided I wanted to include a crown on top (to represent England—the crown jewels—but also because one of our favorite family snacks is a Dutch chocolate sprinkle spread, and the brand logo is a crown. Plus my sisters and I participated in pageants growing up so we have a few crowns between us :)

Then I put the elements together:

I played around with fonts a bit and filled in the shield. The star in the upper left was to represent the military men in our family, the bottom right section clearly references furrows and a little something growing, and the phrase, "Man up and take it like a hat" is very common in our family.

Then I added the color red (for England, of course):

And finally tried the application on shirts:

Well, I got to this point and you know what? I hated it. There I was, practically finished, and I hated it. Not all of the parts, just the whole. It just felt like a lamer version of Aaron's project—hardly noteworthy and definitely not something I'd be thrilled to wear.

So I walked away for a couple of days. Then I asked myself what parts I liked, and I kept just those:

Then I decided to focus on the military aspect more, because a star really wasn't accurate as it represents the rank of a general and we don't have any of those in the fam. So I thought maybe planes would speak to the Air Force and also give a nod of the head toward the wars fought.

I wasn't quite sure where this was going, but kept on and tried to decide on what to add above the planes...I tried herring (to represent the rollmops, and I guess fish speak to sushi as well...):

HA HA NOPE! Not working. Silly as could be. I did take a slight detour and make a fun pattern representing the rollmops and sushi though, so I guess the fish route wasn't a total waste:

Back to the crest, I started making iterations that led to the garden theme above the planes, and had the nice effect of somehow also vaguely resembling a mountain/pine trees....

Well the crown just wasn't working anymore above the circle, so I tried a tiara...still no dice. Words looked a little better, so I continued down that path...

Getting so much closer now. The tudor roses have been giving me grief...not sure I like the way they sit right next to the letters, so I put some leaves back in by the letters. Narrowed it down to three:

Fixed up the wonky angles of the wings on the planes and tweaked some other stuff. Then played around with the putting the tudor rose inside with the plant graphic:

I like the look of the simple plant better....but I don't love the tudor roses on the laurels and yet still want to include them somehow :*(. I still want some reference to England though the crown got the axe. Maybe better to just let them go...or maybe they're okay on the laurels.

Still have to work on color ways and a final direction...please feel free to comment and let me know what you think!

Okay, finishing this up with some different color variations:

I like that the first couple with red flowers still have a sort of Dutch feeling, since I wasn't able to incorporate that otherwise. The tan/brown/green combo has a definite outdoors/camping vibe, and also says military fatigues to me. The last one was supposed to be somewhat aquatic to tie to the Great Salt Lake which my dad grew up by and some of my family is still near.

To print these on shirts, I'd present the options to the family and see what people wanted to spend. If we could only do one color I'd vote for this:

But if we could do multiple screens, this would be my top pick:

Which one do you like best? Thanks for taking the time to view my project! Hopefully you've enjoyed it. Any constructive feedback is always welcome, so feel free to let me know what you think!